Negus is a 28 minute listening experience consisting of 8 compositions recorded in London in 2015, produced by Lord Tusk, Steven Julien, and Acyde.

Negus is presented as an immersive sound installation that can only be experienced in person. The recording is unavailable for purchase via digital or physical platforms. bey designed the multi-track recording as an installation to encourage people to be fully present while listening to it.

The sound installation unfolds through a series of varied installations around the world. Each city proposes a new possibility, a new format, a way forward, a stillness in motion.

Negus was first presented in collaboration with artist Hassan Hajjaj at his riad in Marrakech. It was later presented at Art Basel Hong Kong in March of 2019. Negus was last presented at the Brooklyn Museum in November 2019.

The Dubai iteration of Negus features artworks by Ala Ebtekar, Anuar Khalifi, Laleh Khorramian, Nima Nabavi, and yasiin bey, himself.

Follow @thethirdlinedxb, @soledxb for updates.

yasiin bey (formerly known as Mos Def)

Born in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, yasiin bey is a multidisciplinary artist. He has been making hip-hop music since 1994, and first gained national attention in 1998 with the release of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, with Talib Kweli, and his subsequent solo album, Black on Both Sides, in 1999. Throughout his career, bey has balanced music with acting, appearing in films such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), 16 Blocks (2006), Be Kind Rewind (2008), and Bamboozled (2000), among others.

The Third Line

Founded in 2005, The Third Line is a Dubai based art gallery that represents contemporary artists locally, regionally and internationally. The Third Line also hosts non-profit, alternative programs to increase interest and dialogue in the region.

Sole

Sole is a creative agency, festival operator, and publisher. The grassroots organization has built a rapidly growing audience through its Sole DXB festival, which saw over 36,000 people from 70+ countries attend the eighth annual edition.

Their latest initiative is sole.digital, a feature-focused, mixed media site dedicated to exploring youth and contemporary culture from around the world.

Participating artists

Ala Ebtekar

Ala Ebtekar is a contemporary visual artist who works between his native San Francisco Bay Area and Tehran, Iran. Ebtekar is known primarily for his work in painting, drawing, illumination, and installation that explores the juncture between history and myth, forging a multi-faceted project.

Anuar Khalifi

Anuar Khalifi is a self-taught artist whose practice explores identity, stereotypes of the Muslim world, Orientalism, the individual, colonialism, extremism and the consumer society. The iconography of Khalifi’s work is based on mixing genres and the search of reality among the visual and media chaos to which we are constantly exposed to.

Laleh Khorramian

Laleh Khorramian explores aspects of human nature and the emotional states of consciousness as she looks to give form to the stories she remembers, experiences or dreams. Using several layers of artistic process to create abstract works, Khorramian combines technical skill with unpredictable results. ­An innate creative, Khorramian also produces works using found material, ink drawings, and textiles; she has launched the clothing line Laloon, as an extension of her artistic practice.

Nima Nabavi

Nima Nabavi is a self-taught Iranian-American artist. Inspired by the geometric art of his late grandfather, Nabavi dedicates himself to an art practice driven by a mathematical approach and a contemplative execution of intricate geometries. The artist’s work is focused on geometric abstraction and its connection to the natural world, quantum processes and psychedelic phenomena.